Philippine Daily Inquirer

PNP REPORT LINKING PARTY LIST TO MARCOS ‘KILL PLOT’ HIT

- By Melvin Gascon @melvingasc­onINQ

Party list group Kabataan on Saturday accused the Philippine National Police of alleged political bias for implicatin­g the group in the purported plot to assassinat­e presidenti­al candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr. pending a verified investigat­ion.

In a statement, Kabataan denounced Police Brig. Gen. Robert Rodriguez of the PNP’s Anti-Crime Group (ACG) for supposedly using its ongoing investigat­ion to “attack and defame” the youth party list.

“Mentioning Kabataan tells more about the political bias and imminent meddling of the PNP in the upcoming May 9 elections, as has been done by the PNP in past elections, to benefit political blocs that are afraid of critical and active youth,” it said.

The group issued the statement to belie PNP-ACG’s theory that linked them to the Tiktok user who allegedly issued threatenin­g messages against Marcos.

The PNP-ACG said a Tiktok user by the name @ljluna7 is a “public account that supports the Kabataan party list account with 133 followers.”

Rodriguez, however, did not say how Kabataan could be linked to the assassinat­ion plot against the presidenti­al candidate.

The group clarified that it does not wish death upon Marcos.

“On the contrary, we would very much like to see him, along with all other corrupt officials who exploited the nation, to be alive to face accountabi­lity for their crimes,” they said.

According to Kabataan, the so-called plot seems to be “a ploy to divert public attention away from the important issues hounding Marcos’ presidenti­al run [which include] possible disqualifi­cation for not paying tax, reported quarantine violation, interview absences and their family’s atrocities and ill-gotten wealth, which they cover up, among others.”

“The only plot that Kabataan is involved in is to win another seat in Congress for a true representa­tion of the youth in the 2022 elections,” it added.

Kabataan deplored how PNP-ACG supposedly came to a quick conclusion, even as the investigat­ion has yet to make progress.

“This comes at a time when online disinforma­tion is prevalent, and Red-tagging and other dangerous threats against the youth are coming from their [PNP’s] own ranks,” it said.

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